Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Author: Jay

422 – Cairn Touch This

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In which the X-Men’s membership is a complicated subject; not all angels know each other; we need to talk about Beast’s Wasp costume; Cecilia Reyes speaks for all reasonable folk; Storm gets a mysterious package; and reading comics day-and-date may not be for everyone.

X-PLAINED:

  • The variable loyalties of the N’garai
  • X-Men #74-76
  • A somewhat atypical team lineup
  • A whole lotta backstory
  • How to join the X-Men
  • Warren Kenneth Worthington III as a religious figure
  • Flechette clean-up
  • Teenage drama
  • Detective Jim Logan
  • A lot of murder
  • The N’garai
  • Beast’s Wasp costume
  • Explanatory captions for real life
  • The Ru’tai
  • Pilgrimm
  • Mai’Keth the Undying One
  • The Eye of Kierokk
  • Maggott’s secret origins
  • X-Men cartoons for a 7-year-old
  • Reckoning with loss in comics

NEXT EPISODE: Excalibur rushes toward its conclusion

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Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

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As Mentioned in Episode 421 – Dudleyworld or Bust

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Fast times at Dudleyworld! (Colossus #1)
Aw, these wacky kids.(Colossus #1)
Note: This is supposed to be taking place during the day. (Colossus #1)
EliSabeth, you mean! (Colossus #1)
The Proletarian! (Colossus #1)
BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T TELL HER WHAT WAS GOING ON. (Colossus #1)
On the scale of bad disguises, I’ve seen worse. (Colossus #1)
He’s smooth, I’ll give him that. (X-Men Unlimited #19)
“What the HELL, Mom?!” (X-Men Unlimited #19)
See what I mean about her head? (X-Men Unlimited #19)
My kingdom for follow-through on this tease. (X-Men Unlimited #19)
NEXT EPISODE: The secret origin of Maggott!

421 – Dudleyworld or Bust

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In which one letter can make a big difference; it’s just not Arcade without giant pinballs; Colossus is nobody’s fool; Margali Szardos is not a relative you want to stay in touch with; Nightcrawler turns to the jerk side; and Jay and Miles pitch an X-Men kids’ show.

X-PLAINED:

  • Elisabeth Wilford vs. Elizabeth Wilford
  • Colossus #1
  • X-Men Unlimited #19
  • How to name a miniseries or one-shot
  • The destructive potential of happiness
  • A clock
  • An inaccurate duplicate of Avalon
  • The return of the Proletarian
  • Costumes with characters’ faces on them
  • Death by irony
  • A journey to Limbo
  • Several blasts from the past
  • Margali Szardos’s head
  • Foreshadowing that we desperately wish had panned out
  • Cold open curation
  • A hypothetical X-Men show for five-year-olds

NEXT EPISODE: The secret origin of Maggott

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Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

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420 – The Legendary House of Wolverine, feat. Christopher Michael Roman

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In which Jay sits down with scholar Christopher Michael Roman to discuss his recent book, Queering Wolverine in Comics and Fanfiction: A Fastball Special; alongside queer theory, porous bodies, and nontraditional mentorship.

CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes graphic discussions of physical trauma as well as consensual if weird fictional sex.

NEXT EPISODE: Colossus and Meggan finally go to Dudleyworld, sort of!

No visual companion this week, but if you want to pick up Chris’s book, you can do that here!

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Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

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As Mentioned in Episode 418 – Reignfirefighters

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Those youth and their hijinks! (X-Force #77)
This is the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that shows up to assure you that all you saw was a weather balloon. (X-Force #77)
I’m never gonna be able to see a superhero conversation on a swingset without thinking of the Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue.” (X-Force #77)
The return of the bunny slippers! (X-Force #78)
Aw, Skids. (X-Force #78)
Some very good pacing. (X-Force #78)
Reignfire X-Plains Reignfire, somewhat. (X-Force #79)
Well, shit. (X-Force #79)
Fun Fact: Psychic powers work better when they look cooler. (X-Force #80)
Oh, dear me. (X-Force #80)
Dr. Joshua X-Plains Reignfire. (X-Force #80)
The Elvis windows really make this scene. (X-Force #80)
One more Elvis, for good measure. (X-Force #80)
NEXT EPISODE: Generation X and the Seven Dwarves!

418 – Reignfirefighters

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In which S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are scarier in suits; Reignfire is the new Erik the Red; “background assets” would be a very funny euphemism; it’s always either time travel or clones; and you should probably not get a corporate logo tattooed on the side of your head.

X-PLAINED:

  • Crimes of Dark Beast
  • X-Force #77-80
  • The Mutant Liberation Front
  • Reignfire (repeatedly)
  • Video Renaissance
  • Almost Reno, NM
  • The inversion of several common tropes
  • Small towns
  • Different kinds of mutants
  • X-Force Fun Facts
  • Skids (Sally Blevins)
  • Several continuity errors
  • Some kidnappings
  • Sexiness without prurience
  • Background assets
  • Dr. Joshua (again)
  • (Henry Wallinger)
  • Psychic shenanigans
  • Las Vegas
  • Word-balloon disambiguation
  • X-Force’s new HQ
  • Historical X-Men we’d like to see

NEXT EPISODE: Generation X and the Seven Dwarves

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Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

 

As Mentioned in Episode 417 – Pterodactyl with a Gun

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Rogue anxiety dreams like nobody’s business. (Uncanny X-Men #353)
We call this move the “Lois Lane.” (Uncanny X-Men #353)
I love it when people remember that the Xavier School is–at least ostensibly–a real school. (Uncanny X-Men #353)
WOLVERINE, WHAT THE HELL?!? (Uncanny X-Men #353)
Not the best place to hide incredibly sensitive mechanical equipment, y’all. (Uncanny X-Men #353)
This is supposed to be a clever bait-and-switch, but that hand is fairly obviously not Rogue’s. (Uncanny X-Men #353)
He sure is. (Uncanny X-Men #353)
Valid question, buddy. (Uncanny X-Men #354)
Sauron’s current whereabouts, X-Plained. (Uncanny X-Men #354)
Continued from previous. (Uncanny X-Men #354)
Fuckin’ Marvel Canadians. (Uncanny X-Men #355)
Remember answering machines? (Uncanny X-Men #355)
Yes, excellent. (Uncanny X-Men #355)
Hi, brainwashed Alpha Flight! (Uncanny X-Men #355)
This sequence is objectively perfect. (Uncanny X-Men #355)
Jean, you REALLY don’t spring that costume on someone. (Uncanny X-Men #354)
…Fair, though. (Uncanny X-Men #355)
NEXT EPISODE: this whole mess

417 – Pterodactyl with a Gun

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In which you, too, can use Cerebro; Jubilee is here, for some reason; the Xavier School should absolutely not be accredited; Hulk Hands would solve many of Rogue’s problems; Sauron gets a gun; Psylocke pulls a Lois Lane maneuver; you really shouldn’t spring a Phoenix costume on anybody; Joseph has (another) identity crisis; and Canada has problems.

X-PLAINED:

  • Miles at SDCC
  • Uncanny X-Men #353-355
  • X-Men #73
  • A running motif
  • Wolverine’s sons
  • Margaret Stone
  • “fun”
  • The location of the original X-jet
  • A red herring
  • Sauron (more) (again)
  • Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy… in space!
  • How to ship a pterodactyl
  • Mighty appendages
  • The Agee Institute
  • Boundaries
  • Wallpaper
  • Joseph (more) (again)
  • New Year’s Resolutions
  • Sebastian Shaw and his wraith buddy (again)
  • The X-Men’s answering machine
  • What Wolverine does
  • Alpha Flight
  • Canada problems
  • A crossover
  • Phoenix problems
  • Jean Grey’s ‘90s costume
  • Found families
  • What makes the Dark Phoenix Saga an X-Men story

NEXT EPISODE: Reignfire, resolved!

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Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

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As Mentioned in Episode 416 – The Screaming Room

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Okay, but it’s pretty fucking creepy as a toy, too. (Excalibur #118)
Aaaaand there he goes. (Excalibur #118)
Meanwhile in AWESOME. (Excalibur #118)
Oh, THAT guy. (Excalibur #118)
Nightcrawler’s nightmare. (Excalibur #119)
Colossus’s nightmare. (Excalibur #119)
Shadowcat’s nightmare. (Excalibur #119)
Douglock’s nightmare. (Excalibur #119)
Meggan’s nightmare, featuring a whole lot of great cameos! (Excalibur #119)
I’m not a smoker, but I wanna learn to blow smoke rings like that. (Excalibur #119)
Ouch. (Excalibur #120)
NEXT EPISODE: Why, indeed.

416 – The Screaming Room

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In which we are incapable of X-Plaining the Great Lakes Avengers; Pete Wisdom evolves; Douglock hacks the island; Nightcrawler cosplays Nightcrawler; and we find ourselves bafflingly defensive of the Bamfs.

X-PLAINED:

  • How to recruit Unus the Untouchable to your super-team
  • What Excalibur has been up to
  • Excalibur #118-120
  • An excellent use of danger room technology
  • Some fairly deft metacommentary
  • Colossus vs. another tree
  • Bamfs and the character assassination thereof
  • Nightmare
  • Characterization via lettering
  • Several nightmare scenarios
  • Pete Wisdom vs. Nightmare
  • Meggan’s true form (again)
  • A poorly conceived romantic gesture
  • Foreshadowing
  • Relative Bamf quality
  • Other Marvel villains we’d like to see menace the X-Men
  • Our thoughts on Legion and The Gifted

NEXT EPISODE: A pterodactyl with a gun!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!